iOS Setters and Getters and Underscored Property Names

Question

So I have a NSString property named description, defined as follows:

@property (strong, nonatomic) NSMutableString *description;

I\'m able

Answer 1

@borrrden 's answer is very good. I just want to add some details.

Properties are actually just syntax sugar. So when you declare a property like you did:

@property (strong, nonatomic) NSMutableString *description;

It is automatically synthesized. What it means: if you don't provide your own getter + setter (see borrrden's answer), an instance variable is created (by default it has name "underscore + propertyName"). And getter + setter are synthesized according to the property description that you provide (strong, nonatomic). So when you get/set the property, it is actually equal to calling the getter or the seter. So

self.description;

is equal to [self description]. And

self.description = myMutableString;

is equal to [self setDescription: myMutableString];

Therefore when you define a setter like you did:

-(void)setDescription:(NSMutableString *)description
{
    self.description = description;
}

It causes an infinite loop, since self.description = description; calls [self setDescription:description];.